David Kenner (Foreign Policy) observes:No breakthrough has yet been reported as the offensive enters its third day, as Iraqi forces are still struggling to enter the city. U.S. officials
said that Iraqi forces are supported by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard
Corps, which is operating artillery, rocket launchers, and surveillance
drones in the area. Such support has made the United States leery
of intervening, but Iraqi officials said they will continue the fight
on their own terms. “The Americans continue procrastinating,” an aide to
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the New York Times. “Iraq will liberate Mosul and Anbar without them.”

AFP adds:Some leaders and fighters have described the operation as an opportunity
to avenge the June 2014 massacre by IS of hundreds of new, mostly
Shiite, recruits from the nearby base of Speicher."Shiite paramilitary militias have often carried out reprisal sectarian
attacks against Sunni civilians who are not involved in the
hostilities," said Amnesty International's senior crisis response
adviser Donatella Rovera."We are concerned about the possible recurrence and increase of such attacks in the ongoing operations," she told AFP.

Iraqi
forces fighting to recapture the city of Tikrit from the extremist
group Islamic State (also known as ISIS) should protect civilians from
revenge attacks by pro-government militias. In accordance with the
international laws of war, all fighting parties should take all feasible
precautions to minimize harm to the civilian population.

Human Rights Watch has documented numerous atrocities against Sunni
civilians by pro-government militias and security forces after they
retook other towns. Amid reports that ISIS has taken civilians captive
as human shields, forces that capture ISIS fighters and take suspected
ISIS supporters into custody should promptly transfer them to official
Justice Ministry facilities to reduce the risk of summary executions,
revenge killings, or other abuses, Human Rights Watch said.

“All commanders in Tikrit need to make sure that their forces protect civilians and allow them to flee the combat zone,” said Joe Stork,
deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
“Past fighting raises grave concerns that Tikrit’s civilians are at
serious risk from both ISIS and government forces, and both sides need
to protect civilians from more sectarian slaughter.”

On March 2, 2015, an Iraqi military force along with volunteers from the
quasi-governmental Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Committees,
and pro-government militias began an offensive to retake Tikrit.

Iraqi officials have recently made statements that raise concerns about
possible retaliatory attacks in Tikrit, Human Rights Watch said. In a speech
to parliament on March 2, Prime Minister Hayder al-Abadi said: “There
is no neutrality in the battle against ISIS. If someone is being neutral
with ISIS, then he is one of them.” While Abadi also urged government
forces to exercise
the “utmost care in protecting civilian lives and property” in the
fighting, in the past they have shown little respect for civilians’
lives, Human Rights Watch said.

Hadi al-Ameri, former transport minister and leader of the Badr Organization, a leading Shia militia, told
Tikrit residents over the weekend to flee so that his forces could
“wrap up the battle of revenge for Speicher,” media reported. The
reference apparently was to the killing by ISIS of hundreds to thousands
of Shia recruits taken prisoner when ISIS overran a military base near
Tikrit in June 2014.

On March 1, 2015, the Institute for the Study of War said it had received reports
that ISIS fighters were holding “an unspecified number of civilians as
human shields” in Tikrit. Government forces and pro-government militias
should ensure that everyone in their custody, whether ISIS fighters,
civilians, or civilians press-ganged by ISIS to fight for it are treated
humanely, according to the laws of war.

Human Rights Watch has documented repeated abuses against civilians in
areas that Iraqi security forces and militias have retaken from ISIS
since it took control of the northern city of Mosul, Iraq’s second
largest city, last June. They include mass killings of prisoners and what appears to have been sectarian retaliation against Sunni civilians. Human Rights Watch also documented militias’ alleged war crimes against civilians in Diyala province after battles against ISIS in the area.

That same month, Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani condemned
attacks on civilians and their property after fighting, and issued
guidelines to pro-government fighters. He called on them to protect
civilians during combat and ordered fighters to observe Islam’s rules of
war.

In the face of all of that and so much more -- including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office arguing over whether or not he's in Erbil -- who wouldn't rather focus on the tale of a woodpecker giving a weasel a ride?

As this faction is pitted against that faction and bombs fall from the sky, the tale may provide more than just entertainment, it may provide hope.

The following community sites -- plus Dissident Voice, Susan's On the Edge and Antiwar.com -- updated:

About Me

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